Spinal column: under the knife again

Share via

‘The 84 staples are gone; a long scar defines my thigh. I’ve packed in my career as a bikini model’

Melanie Reid broke her neck and back falling from a horse in April 2010
and spent 12 months in rehab. This week: another operation.

And so it begins again. On the fourth day after my hip operation the
physiotherapist arrives at my bedside, that steely look in his eyes. It
seems unthinkable, but he’s going to try to manoeuvre me out of bed and into
a wheelchair.

As it turns out, some things are not yet quite possible. With a mouthful of
morphine gel and two people’s assistance, I get as far as legs over the bed.
But the right